Thursday, May 30, 2013

﻿Courtesy of Bob Hoskins and my good friends at Stormwatch Comics in
West Berlin, New Jersey, I have all of the 2013 Free Comic Book Daygiveaways. As a supplement to the bloggy thing, I’ll be reviewingthem one by one.

Free Comic Book Day: Star Wars and Captain Midnight is one half ofa flip-comic from Dark Horse Comics. Flip it over and you get FreeComic Book Day: Avatar...the Last Airbender.

“The Assassination of Darth Vader” is an eight-page story by writerBrian Wood with artist Ryan Odagawa. Concerning political intriguewithin the Empire and an Imperial Star Destroyer, it makes good useof familiar Star Wars characters like Vader and Boba Fett. Whichcould lead a Star Wars fan into checking out Dark Horse’s many StarWars titles. That’s a good angle for a FCBD giveaway. A publisherwants to attract paying customers to his comics.

Digression. The inside front cover of this FCBD issue has a briefparagraph setting the stage for the Star Wars story. By way of ageneral comment, I find Dark Horse’s Star Wars somewhat confusing.I would recommend to this publisher that they devote more of theirStar Wars inside front covers to giving a new reader some sense ofwhat he or see is getting into. End digression.

Backing up the cover story is an eight-page Captain Midnight storyby Joshua Williamson with art by Pere Perez and Roger Robinson. Ifound the story quite readable and it gave just enough backgroundon the legendary hero and his current circumstances to get me intothe series. The story continues in Captain Midnight #1, which goeson sale in July. Again, this is a good use of the Free Comic BookDay event.

Flipping the book over, “Rebound” appears to be a flashback to theearly days of a young man I assume is the hero of Avatar...the LastAirbender. The eight-page story by Gene Luen Yang didn’t give mea true entry into that fictional world, though his writing and theRyan Hill art were of professional quality. I don’t see this sideof the FCBD book as being more than preaching to the converted. AnAvatar fan might see and, realizing there are Avatar comics, go insearch of them. I don’t think it would convince a non-Avatar fanto become interested in the series.

Monday, May 27, 2013

From time to time, the bloggy thing will be supplemented with brieflooks at items found in my Vast Accumulation of Stuff.

Superman Underoos. As near as I can figure, I must have acquiredthese as part of my compensation for work with a bankruptcy lawyerafter the painful demise of Neverending Battle, Inc., a non-profitorganization with which I had been involved. The sad tale of thatorganization must await another day.

These Underoos are at least 25 years old. The trademark/copyrighton them is 1978, so they might be 35 years old.

I haven’t been able to find these particular Superman Underoos oneBay. Indeed, I haven’t even been able to find any image/mentionof them anywhere online. A few of my garage sale customers tell methey saw a pair on sale at last year’s Akron Comicon. The price onthem was somewhere in the vicinity of $50.

I’m selling them for $25 at my garage sale. I expect that somedaya really avid Superman collector will see them and be delighted tohave them at that price. In the meantime, my customers get a kickout of looking at them. So do I.

I still wish they made these in adult sizes, even though I’ll neveragain wear any item of clothing featuring any DC Comics character.Not even Black Lightning since DC has failed to pay me for variousshirts featuring my creation. But I digress.

Friday, May 24, 2013

My next Vast Accumulation of Stuff garage sale will be today and tomorrow, May 24-25, from 9 am to 2 pm each day at 840 Damon Drive in
Medina, Ohio.

Weather looks iffy, so I don't know if I'll be able to put out the tables of paperbacks and VHS tapes at a quarter per item. The tables inside the garage are fully stocked.

I do know that I won't have a table of stuffed animals for sale. When my daughter Kelly and I started going through the large bins, we realized we really needed to have my wife Barb look through them as well. Just to make certain she didn't want to keep some of the more special critters. When I do add that stuffed animals table to the garage sale, it will be packed.

I also decided to postpone the mystery boxes for now. I hope to have them in the next sale.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

My next Vast Accumulation of Stuff garage sale will be Friday and
Saturday, May 24-25, from 9 am to 2 pm each day at 840 Damon Drive in
Medina, Ohio.

There are three tables of quarter comics with a lot of wonderful issues included. There are three boxes of magazines at a quarter apiece and the vast majority of them are comics-related. There are two boxes of hardcovers at $5 per item and I'm hoping to fill a third box by tomorrow morning. There will be one box and a spinner rack of more expensive comics and books.

There are nearly two tables of trade paperbacks at $2 per item. There are copies of 1000 COMIC BOOKS YOU MUST READ at $20 each.

There are two boxes of quarter comic books appropriate for all ages and a selection of Archie digests also priced at a quarter. There is a box of appropriate for all ages trades priced at $1 per item.

On the middle table, there will be rare Superman posters at $20 each and some other rare Superman items. There will also be some other intriguing items on that table.

Plus...of the weather allows me to set up some outside the garage tables...

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

My next Vast Accumulation of Stuff garage sale will be Friday and
Saturday, May 24-25, from 9 am to 2 pm each day at 840 Damon Drive in
Medina, Ohio.

The restocking is 99% completed. It doesn't look like I'll fill the third box of comics suitable for all ages, but that's the only area I'm coming up even a little bit short. There will be a box of higher-priced comics, some of them pretty cool.

Weather permitting, I'll have three outside tables filled with VCR tapes...paperback books...and stuffed animals. The VCR tales and the paperbacks will be priced at a quarter per item. The stuffed animals will probably be priced at fifty cents per item.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

My next Vast Accumulation of Stuff garage sale will be Friday and Saturday, May 24-25, from 9 am to 2 pm each day at 840 Damon Drive in Medina, Ohio.

Restocking has slowed due to a recurrent wrist injury, but, besides the additional comics mentioned in my previous update, I can now report that I'll be adding around four more trade paperback boxes ($2 per item), two more magazine boxes (a quarter per item) and what looks to be two more hardcover boxes ($5 per item). I'm working on a third box of suitable-for-all-ages comic books at a quarter per comic.

There will be rare Superman posters for sale, copies of 1000 Comic Books You Must Read and other Isabella-written items, and a box of more expensive comics and books.Plus some surprises. Later today, Kelly and I are going shopping for three four-foot tables for additional items. Weather permitting, these tables will be set up outside the garage and contain even more nifty stuff for sale.

There are many amazing buys being offered this sale. Don't miss out on them.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

My next convention appearance will be at the East Coast Black Ageof Comics Convention (ECBACC) on Saturday, May 18, from 11 am to 7
pm at the Enterprise Center, 4548 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA.
The activities include a comic book marketplace filled with amazing
new works by cartoonists and other creative types, a kids corner,
panel discussions and workshops. The guest list includes Jonathan
Gayles, Eric Battle, Jerry Craft, Chris Cross, William Foster III,
N Steven Harris, Joe Illidge, Alex Simmons and more. I’ll have a
bit more to say about this great event in the very near future, but
for now, I urge you to check out the East Coast Black Age of Comics
Convention (ECBACC) page on Facebook.

I'll be posting several short bloggy notes this week with full blogging returning as soon as possible after I return from this...

My next convention appearance will be at the East Coast Black Ageof Comics Convention (ECBACC) on Saturday, May 18, from 11 am to 7pm at the Enterprise Center, 4548 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA.The activities include a comic book marketplace filled with amazingnew works by cartoonists and other creative types, a kids corner,panel discussions and workshops. The guest list includes JonathanGayles, Eric Battle, Jerry Craft, Chris Cross, William Foster III, N Steven Harris, Joe Illidge, Alex Simmons and more. I’ll have abit more to say about this great event in the very near future, butfor now, I urge you to check out the East Coast Black Age of ComicsConvention (ECBACC) page on Facebook.

The Rawhide Kid - the one created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, thencontinued by Larry Lieber - is my favorite western character. So,inspired by Essential Rawhide Kid Volume 1, which reprinted all theLee/Kirby issues and then some, I’ve been writing about the RawhideKid most every Wednesday. When I ran out of the issues reprintedin the book, I tracked down some owlhoots, brought them in and usedthe reward money to buy more issues of the title. Because that’swhat the Kid would have done.

Action!! Danger!! Gun-slingin’ galore!! There’s more blazing, two-fisted action than you can shake a Colt at when the Rawhide Kidtangles with the man called the Peacemaker!

The Rawhide Kid #56 [February 1967] has a cool Larry Lieber coverinked by Sol Brodsky. Surrounding a dramatic figure of the Kid, wehave three vignettes of the Peacemaker blasting away at opponentsand a head shot of this issue’s villain. We also get the hardestsell of almost any Rawhide Kid cover.

This man is Bret Adams! An unforgettable face–-an unforgettablecharacter–-an unforgettable story...”Fall of a Hero!”

I’m not sure if the hard sell is due to enthusiasm for the story orsome doubt about its commercial value, but, from where I sit, the17-page “Fall of a Hero!” is one of Lieber’s finest Rawhide tales.It’s a densely-plotted story that nonetheless has page upon page of fisticuffs and gunplay. Lieber is the writer and penciler withinks by Vince Colletta.

The story opens in the town of Gila Gap with a barroom bully doingwhat barroom bullies do. However, when the tavern patrons send forBret Adams, the bully turns tail and runs.

The Rawhide Kid makes his first appearance on page three, workingon a ranch and not carrying a gun. One of the ranch hands attemptsto bully him and the Kid punches him out. When the bully pulls agun on the Kid, another ranch hand tosses Rawhide a gun and, well,you know how that will end.

Harrison, the ranch owner, asks to see the Kid, who he knows onlyas Johnny Clay, in his home. Harrison doesn’t know anything aboutJohnny, but the fight shows him that the young man is more than anordinary cowpoke.

Harrison tells Johnny how Bred Adams came to town and drove off theentire Drago Gang single-handed. The rancher thinks it was a set-up to make Adams look good. He has a personal stake in this. Hisdaughter Laura has fallen in love with Adams and is fixing to getmarried to him. Harrison wants Johnny to expose Adams as a fraud,but the Kid is looking to avoid gunfights, not start them.

Laura overhears the conversation. Her and her father argue. TheKid takes his leave. The rancher tells Laura that, if she marriesAdams, he’ll cut her off without a penny. Harrison knows it’s theranch, the richest in the state, that Adams really wants. When theangry girl repeats the conversation to Adams, the gunslinger tellsher heart is all he wants.

That evening, Adams reveals his true nature as he sneaks up to theHarrison house with the intent of gunning down Laura’s dad beforethe rancher can change his will. Out for a stroll, the Rawhide Kidspots Adams. He manages to tackle Adams and spoil his aim enoughto turn a lethal shot into a wounding one.

Adams and Johnny duke it out, but, when the noise brings Laura andthe ranch hands onto the scene, Adams claims it was the Rawhide Kidwho shot Harrison. Johnny makes a run for it and soon outdistanceshis pursuers.

Adams knows he’ll never be safe as long as the Rawhide Kid lives.Adams meets with the Drago Gang - the comatose Harrison was spot onabout the gunslinger being in cahoots with the outlaws - and hiresthem to ambush the Kid when he returns to town. Adams has clearlyfigured out that the Kid won’t let the frame-up stand.

Rawhide heads back to town to clear his name. He’s winged by oneof the Drago Gang and still takes them down with just one hand anda whole lot of moxie. He marches them back to Gila Gap to exposethe Peacemaker for a fraud and attempted murderer.

The Kid challenges Adams to a duel. He doesn’t kill Adams, but hehumiliates him and forces the man to admit to shooting Harrison tokeep him from changing his will. Laura realizes she was played fora fool by Adams.

Bret Adams had made himself far more of a helpless prisoner thanyou could ever make him...the man who sacrificed his honor to wina rep now has one! Not the one he wanted, but one that he’ll neverbe able to shake...for no matter how long he rides–-how far hetravels–-the Peacemaker will forever beat the brand of coward andfraud!

Okay, it’s a pretty speech, but I still would have thrown Adams ina cell for a decade or so. That’s just how I roll.

Laura tells Johnny he will always have a job with the ranch if hewants it. He declines. It’s too risky for a man with a price onhis head to stay where he’s known. As he rides out of town, Johnnytalks to his horse:

I hated to leave those folks, Nightwind! But there are other towns,other territories...and, sooner or later, we’re bound to find theone that has the peace and quiet I’m searching for!

Next in this issue is the “Marvel Bullpen Bulletins” page and it’sa mite light on actual news. Marvel thanks Stars and Stripes, “thefamous serviceman’s newspaper,” for its favorable article on MarvelComics. Fans are asked to let their dealers - not what you think -to make sure they stock and display Marvel comic books. Fans areasked not to send money to the Marvel offices for Marvel stuff notoffered by Marvel itself.

There’s a long-winded explanation of why some competitor characterswere featured in a TV cartoon advertisement that ran in the Marvelmags a few months back. The quick answer: someone paid for the ad.

There’s a nice item about the Comics Fan Convention that was heldin midtown Manhattan the previous July, a request for comments onthe Marvel Super-Heroes cartoons now airing and the usual list of26 more Merry Marvel Marching Society members. Also, as usual, Ididn’t recognize any of the names.

There are no big events in this month’s “Mighty Marvel Checklist.”But the name-dropping is impressive: Dr. Doom, the Silver Surfer,the Inhumans, the Lizard, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, Ka-Zar,the Banshee, the Mandarin and more. No wonder I couldn’t wait forthe new Marvels to show up at my local drugstore!

The five-page “Reno’s Revenge” is the issue’s non-series story andit’s not a reprint. Written by Denny O’Neil with art by Al Ulmer, it’s the tale of gunfighter Reno Branden. As a boy, Reno watched his father gunned down by the Laramie Kid. Branden spent his youthlearning how to use his guns with both hands and with amazing speedand accuracy. He’s been tracking the Kid ever since.

The twist? When Branden finally finds the Laramie Kid at a hotel, he’s shocked by what the once-famous gunslinger has become:

He’s old...almost blind! He’s already paid for his crimes! Timecaught up to him before I did!

Reno turns and walks away from the old man. He drops his gunbeltin the street and doesn’t look back. He mounts his horse and ridesaway from his own misspent life as a gunfighter.

O’Neil delivered a good story here, perfectly in keeping with thesimilar stories written by editor Stan Lee and others. I thoughtUlmer did a good job as well and wondered why I hadn’t seen more ofhis work beyond this one story. As it turns out...

Ulmer wrote and drew for a number of comics publishers in the 1940sthrough the early 1950s. His clients included Marvel, ACG, Avon,DC, Dell, Eastern Color, Fawcett, Fox, Hillman and Holyoke. Fromwhat I can tell, from comics, Ulmer turned his talents to workingon commercial advertising films. I don’t know what brought him toMarvel for this story, but it seems to be his only comics credit ofthe 1960s. If anyone has additional information on him, feel freeto share with me and my bloggy thing readers.

The tale was followed by a half-page ad for the Marvel Super-Heroescartoon show that includes over 40 stations carrying the program.Alas, my native Cleveland wasn’t one of them, but the show did airin Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Japan, Argentina, Uruguay and Toronto,Canada. The bottom half of the page offered ten different Marvel t-shirts at $1.60 each, Thing and Hulk sweatshirts at $3.15 and theever-present stationary kit at a buck or two for $1.60. Handlingand poster were an additional quarter per item.

The “Ridin’ the Trail with Rawhide” letters page ran four lettersfrom readers. Bobby Closs of Ontario pointed our a coloring goof.Terry Lee Pennington from Verdon in France wanted to see an annualteaming Rawhide with Kid Colt and the Two-Gun Kid. Butch Ragwellof Ackerman, Mississippi wanted to see a new outfit for the RawhideKid. James E. Lee of Panama City, Florida wanted the Kid to have agirlfriend, become a lawman and get his own TV show. I’ve alwaysbeen intrigued by the notion of the Rawhide Kid becoming a sheriffand settling down. Unfortunately, even if What If was still beingpublished, I probably couldn't sell Marvel on a story like that.

I’m taking a few days off to put the finishing touches on my firstcomic books garage sale of the summer, but I’ll be back as soon aspossible with more stuff.

How many eyes does horror have? Over the years, I’d seen bits and pieces of Night of the Lepus (1972) and, even in those very briefglimpses, the only horror I experienced was in wondering to whichdark gods its makers had to make doubtless hideous sacrifice inorder to get the film bankrolled.

The “Lepus” of the title are giant mutated rabbits who eat people.Back in 1972, you had to watch the movie to learn that because themovie poster and the trailer were determined to keep the revelation secret and it wasn’t to spoil the suspense. Anyway, given my lovefor the cheesiest and most awful giant monster movies, I requestedthe DVD of the movie from my local library system.

The plot in brief:

When regular rabbits threaten to overrun the range, scientists arecalled in to combat that. One of the experiments created unusualgrowth in rabbits so they discard that theory and think they havedestroyed the treated rabbits. One of them isn’t destroyed, makeslots of rabbit babies with the rampaging rabbits. Their expandedsize expands their dining choices to include humans. Thousands ofgiant hungry bunnies. Elmer Fudd’s worst nightmare.

According to Wikipedia, producer A. C. Lyles and director WilliamF. Claxton got their start making western movies. They filled thecast with character actors who they’d worked with: Stuart Whitman,Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun, and DeForest Kelley. That’s right, Dr.McCoy is in the house, or, rather, the range, playing the president
of the university where the experiments take place.

Damn it, Jim, I’m an administrator, not a veterinarian!

The only truly exciting scene in the movie is when Leigh, playingthe wife of scientist Whitman, is trapped in a mobile home with heryoung daughter, surrounded by the giant rabbits and fighting themoff with roadside flares. However, even there, the film’s biggestflaw diminishes the suspense. It’s the rabbits.

No matter how much fake blood the film makers dabbed on the rabbitfaces, no matter how well built some of the miniature sets were, nomatter how dark they shot the rabbit scenes, the rabbits are justnot convincing menaces. Which explains the poster and the trailer.

I’m glad I watched Night of the Lepus. I think everyone who lovesthese kind of movies should watch it once. Just once. Believe me,it will stay with you a long time.

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Darby’s Rangers (1958) stars James Garner as William Darby, WorldWar II commander of the 1st Ranger Battalion. This special forcesunit of the U.S. Army was modeled after the British Commandoes. Itwas an all-volunteer unit and trained with the Brits. Though I’veacquired some reference material on the Rangers - the film is basedon a book by a former Ranger - I decided to hold off reading any ofit and let the movie stand on its own merits.

Filmed in black and white so the movie could utilize actual combatfootage, Darby’s Rangers does stand on its own. Garner is terrificas a man driven to create the best unit in the military. Though anumber of characters are combat movie cliches, such as the by thebook junior officer who wins the respect of his men when he tossesthe book aside, most are compelling. Among the most interesting isa thoroughly amoral Lothario. I can see why some would think thisan inspiration for Marvel’s Howling Commandoes, but there are likeresemblances in other war movies of the era and the fairly commontheme of men of different backgrounds coming together to defeat theNazis and their allies.

Darby’s Rangers is an entertaining film that doesn’t shy away fromthe tragic consequences of war and the dangerous part the Rangersplay in it. There are moments of humor and of tragedy. There’sromance, though it often comes in most unexpected ways.

The movie is well-written and well-acted with a fine performance byEdd “Kookie” Byrnes as the initially stuffy Lt. Dittmann. Thoughfilmed mostly on the Warner Brothers backlot, the film still givesa sense of the scope of the Rangers training and combat missions.It’s definitely worth viewing and, if you’ve already seen it, worthviewing again.

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Known as Robot in the U.S., Enthiran (2010) is a very strange andtoo long Indian science fiction thriller. It stars Rajinikanth asthe scientist Vaseegaran and Chitti, the android/robot he creates. Chitti is amazing, but constantly makes mistakes by taking commandsliterally and not understanding human emotion. When the scientisttries to program emotions into Chitti, things start to go horriblyawry.

Chitti falls in love with Sana [Aishwarya Rai], which doesn’t playwell with Vaseegaran. Then, being considered for mass productionby the army, Chitti is rejected after being manipulated by a rivalscientist. Vaseegaran destroys his creation, but the rival remakesChitti in a bad human-murdering world-conquering way. Vaseegaranwages a desperate battle to defeat his creation.

This is a weird one. There is considerable humor at the start ofthis three-hour movie, but human treachery turns it very dark. Asseems typical of Indian movies, bizarre musical numbers interruptthe story several times. That said, the special effects are quitegood. If you can get through its length and the musical sequences,Enthiran is a fascinating experience. It was recommend to me by aFacebook friend and now I recommend it to you.

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The Heroic Trio (1992) is a Hong Kong super-hero movie recommendedto me by another Facebook friend. Wikipedia offers this summary:

An invisible woman is kidnapping newborn babies who are destined tobe emperors and delivering them to the mysterious subterraneansupernatural Evil Master. The police are powerless and the citymust be saved by three very different women who share a terriblepast. Anita Mui plays the mild-mannered wife of a police inspectorwho's also the mask-wearing, sword-slinging, knife-throwing crimefighter, Wonder Woman. Maggie Cheung plays the shotgun-toting,hard-boiled bounty hunter, Thief Catcher. Michelle Yeoh is theInvisible Woman, the troubled but determined strong right arm ofthe Evil Master.

In the English version, “Wonder Woman” is called “Shadow Fox” and“Thief Catcher” is “Mercy.” Too little is made of Mercy’s role inthe accidental death of an infant. That didn’t carry the weight itshould have.

The movie squeezes a lot of plot and character moments into its 88-minute running time. The three lead actors play their roles largebut within acceptable bounds. The villains overact embarrassingly.Other cast members tend toward the overacting end of the scale, butdon’t make my teeth grind the way the bad guys do.

The action sequences are well-staged, especially the final battlebetween the Trio and the Evil Master. I didn’t see the nature ofthat battle coming and it was very effective.

The Heroic Trio isn’t a great movie, but it’s a fun way to spend anhour-and-a-half. I enjoyed it.

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Hobo with a Shotgun (2011) is one twisted movie. Rutger Hauer isthe title character, a homeless man whose train-hopping takes himto the worst city/neighborhood I could imagine. The man in chargeis a brutal psychopath. His sons and flunkies are much the same andtheir depravity infects everyone in their reach. Even the policeare part of the problem, the villain’s willing accomplices in themost heinous and violent crimes you can imagine, including burningto death a busload of young children.

Hauer brings a demented gusto to his character. His hobo has themost simple of dreams: to buy a lawnmower and start a lawn-mowingbusiness in some distant place where they actually have lawns. Hebefriends and is befriended by streetwalker Abby [Molly Dunsworth].Both actors bring sincerity to their roles. Pretty much everyoneelse in the cast mugs the camera incessantly.

This is perhaps the most violent movie I’ve ever seen. Watching itwas painful, but the film makers did keep me interested. It is anexperience I won’t repeat, but, if you enjoy ultra-violent movieswith lots of gore, you’ll surely like this one.

That’s all for the movie reviews until I watched another batch ofcinematic wonders. Come back tomorrow for the latest installmentof my Rawhide Kid Wednesdays.

Monday, May 6, 2013

My first garage sale of the summer will be on Thursday and Friday, May 9 and 10, from 9 am to 2 pm each day. There will be thousands of comic books, books, and more on sale at bargain prices. There will also be other items, but I'm not 100% sure what will fit in the sale until I put the last touches on it Wednesday night. These sales will be works in process through the end of the summer.

The address is 840 Damon Drive, Medina, Ohio. Be sure to respect the parking signs on the street.

There will be no showings by appointment this summer due to my work and family obligations.

﻿Movies are my mental junk food. I don’t look for the gourmet art.I go for the hour-and-a-half of entertainment. Which means I watchquite a few deliciously cheesy movies.

I respect comic books. I can write comic books. I know what thatrequires. I don’t have as much respect for movies. Maybe that willcome later in life if I ever write one, though the odds are that ifI ever do write a movie, it’ll be something like Mega-Doberman Vs.Dinocat and, if I have any say in the matter, it will star CorinNemec and Claudia Christian.

In the past several weeks, after finishing a long day of writing,I would watch a movie borrowed from my local library system. Tiedin with roughly a hundred area libraries, my local library is ableto get all sorts of movies for me from the relatively recent to theso obscure I may be the only person in the city who’s ever heard ofthem, much less want to watch them. I’m special that way.

Taken 2 (2012) is a sequel to Taken (2008). In the original movie,retired CIA agent Liam Neeson shot and otherwise killed/tortured agreat many bad people and winged one unwitting wife of a bad man toget hubby to spill his guts re: the kidnapping of Neeson’s daughterMaggie Grace, taken by sex traffickers. The original movie was funwith a really impressive body count. Famke Janssen played Neeson’sex-wife and Grace’s mom, but she didn’t do anything of note in themovie. The sequel fixes that.

In Taken 2, Neeson, Grace and the separated from her lousy rich newhusband Janssen vacation in Istanbul. This time around, Neeson andJanssen are taken by the surviving family members of the villainsNeeson dispatched in the first movie. Grace avoids getting taken.She also helps her father escape, though he has to leave Janssen tosave Grace from her pursuers. Once Grace is safe, Neeson goes backto reducing the crowding at future family gatherings of these badmen. It’s totally different from the first movie in that it seemsto have had a smaller budget.

Taken was not made with a sequel in mind. Then it did really wellin theaters, so Taken 2 was made. The impressive success of Taken2 begat Taken 3, which is said to complete the Taken trilogy. I’mthinking Neeson wipes out an entire country of kidnappers to makesure they never mess with his family again. I think he should teamup with Wolverine because that would be awesome.

Taken is sort of fun. Taken 2 not so much. Taken 3 needs super-heroes. Maybe some DC super-heroes as most of them will availablewhen the new Superman movie bombs and when the fans realize therewill never ever be a Justice League movie...unless Marvel makes itfor DC.

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Part of Alex Cross (2012) was filmed in Cleveland. While in town,Matthew Fox was arrested for assault for punching the female driverof a party bus. He should have been arrested for his Razzie-worthyperformance as a psychotic hitman. The rest of the cast should’vebeen arrested as co-conspirators.

Tyler Perry plays the title hero, a Detroit psychologist and policelieutenant. Edward Norton plays his partner. Fox plays Picasso,a sadistic killer hired to kill a billionaire CEO. Fox murders abunch of people and tortures some of them after injecting them witha drug that leaves his victims conscious but paralyzed and able tofeel everything he does to them. The movie runs 101 minutes, butit felt so much longer than I feared I had been injected with thatdamned drug and then tortured by this awful movie.

Many of the movies I watch are low-budget projects. Which at leastgives them some excuse for being lousy. But Alex Cross was a majorrelease with a major budget and has no such excuse. It’s just onebad movie. No wonder Morgan Freeman bolted after appearing in twoearlier Cross films. Not even he could have saved this cinematiccowpie. It’s not even worth watching for free.

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Attack the Block (2011) is great fun. This British monster moviepits a teenage street gang battling alien invaders in their publichousing neighborhood. Before the night - Guy Fawkes Night - ends,the muggers will end up fighting both the monsters and a local drugkingpin and form an alliance with their most recent mugging victim.The action rarely takes a breather, but, when it does, we get finecharacter moments. John Boyega delivers an outstanding performanceas the gang leader, as does Jodie Whittaker as the mugging victim,a nurse who becomes their combat medic of sorts. Nick Frost addscomedy to the carnage as the neighborhood weed dealer. This is myfavorite of the movies I’ve watched recently.

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The classic Seven Samurai (1954) begat the classic The MagnificentSeven (1960) begat the not remotely classic Battle Beyond the Stars(1980). Produced by Roger Corman and directed by Jimmy Murakami,Battle is an endearingly goofy film. It’s not “so bad it’s good,”but it is good enough to be an entertaining 105 minutes.

The movie is not without some coolness. Robert Vaughn plays Gelt,an intergalactic gun-for-hire not far removed from the character heplayed in The Magnificent Seven. George Peppard is “Space Cowboy,”a perpetually high gunrunner; he was considered for Steve McQueen’srole in The Magnificient Seven. Fans of old TV shows may get somelaughs seeing Richard Thomas, Marta Kristen, Sam Jaffe and JuliaDuffy. The cast also includes John Saxon and Sybil Danning. Noneof the performances are what I would call good, but Vaughn does hisbest with some pretty punk writing.

What I liked best about Battle Beyond the Stars was its intriguingaliens. There’s a reptilian slaver who is the last of his kind, agroup of clones who are but five of their universe-spanning sharedintelligence and beings who communicate by radiating heat. To itscredit, the film manages to spend some time with all of the above.

Despite my negative comments, Battle Beyond the Stars is ripe fora bigger budget remake. The basic story, taken as it is from someclassic movies, is good. With better writing, acting and specialeffects, it still wouldn’t be a Star Trek or Star Wars movie event,but it could be a reason to go to the theater at those times whenthere are no genre blockbusters in general release.

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Columbiana (2011) stars Zoe Saldana as Cataleya, an assassin whoseside job is seeking vengeance on the vicious drug lord who had herparents murdered when she was a child. She witnessed their deathsand, unlike a certain Gotham City billionaire, she started fightingback immediately...pinning a killer’s hand to a table with a knifeand then making her escape to the United States. Taken in by heruncle, also a ruthless criminal, she insists on being trained to bean assassin. She murders without conscience while leaving behindclues to draw out the drug lord, currently a protected guest of theU.S. She is one twisted protagonist.

Written by Luc Besson, who also wrote the Taken movies, Columbianais unrelentingly grim. Outside of Cataleya’s lover, who hasn’t aclue as to her real identity/occupation and various law-enforcement agents, there aren’t many good and decent folks in the film. Evenher elderly grandmother appears to know full well her surviving sonis a criminal.

What makes Columbiana less than vile is Saldana’s fine performance,some inventive action scenes, a saw-it-coming demise for the hateddrug lord and the film’s conclusion. Cataleya gets her vengeance,but she loses everything else of value in her life. She loses herfamily, her lover, her anonymity and, presumably, since her unclebooked her assassinations, her career. Even if you assumes she hasbundles of money salted away, you also get the sense that there isnothing left in her life that will ever bring her even modest joy.While it may be scant justice for her crimes, it is, at least, somekind of justice.

Columbiana isn’t a movie I would watch again, but it entertained mefor its 111-minute length. Which is all I asked of it.

I’ll be back tomorrow with even more movie madness, including mythoughts on a Indian science fiction film, a movie some think mayhave inspired the creation of Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandoes,Hong Kong super-heroines, giant killer rabbits and a bad ass hobowith a shotgun.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

I had a great time signing books at Carol and John's Comic Book Shop in Cleveland, Ohio. It's a great store, clean, friendly, and very well stocked with all kinds of comic books and collections, action figures, t-shirts and more. I recommend it.

I came up with an idea for a new Free Comic Book Day promotion there and am refining it even as we speak. I'll be writing about this idea later in the week.

Thanks again to John, Carol and all the great staff and fans at their shop!

I’ll be appearing at Carol and John’s Comic Book Shop on that moststellar of holidays. Their store is located at Kamm’s Plaza, 17462Lorain Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. That’s Saturday, May 4, and I’llbe signing from 3-5 pm. John says the first 100 people who show upfor my signing get a free copy of Essential Marvel Horror Volume 2,which reprints a number of my 1970s stories. It’s a generous offerand I hope my area readers take advantage of it.

﻿Many people are uncomfortable discussing Dragon*Con and the event’scontinued involvement with alleged child molester and co-founder EdKramer, but Tuesday’s bloggy thing has received more hits than anyother bloggy thing by a factor of three to one and did that in justone day. I’m gratified, not by those numbers, but by the largelycivil discussion that followed my posting the piece.

Most of the responses were favorable and even kind to me, but somewere less so. I’m a big boy with a thick skin, so I’ll take what’sthrown at me. That comes with the territory when one chooses towrite about a controversial topic.

A friend and former colleague condemned me for the piece and thencompared me to Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. Which might have stungif it weren’t so patently ridiculous. I’m still on my first wifeand I have never abused Oxycontin.

One wag commented that he couldn’t imaging anyone offering sex toTony Isabella, much less a teenage girl. Putting aside that I wasquite the delicious hunk of man-candy in my youth, I think I madeit clear the youngster was more attracted to my hotel room than tome. Kidding aside...

None of the opposing arguments swayed me. One writer described thefolks who criticized me as “morally inept,” but I do recognize itcan be hard to disavow something one has enjoyed and more so whenit’s something one loves. It’s why some politicians can’t supportequal rights until they find out their child is gay. The posters aren’t personally affected by Kramer or the other situations I andothers wrote about, so they dismiss or ignore them. As I’ve saidin the past - and which Harlan Ellison quotes on occasion - there’sno fury like that of the uninvolved.

Some folks pointed out that Kramer is innocent until proven guiltyin a court of law. Which ignores that he has spent over thirteenyears avoiding his day in court through artifice and outright lies. He has claimed his health made him physically unfit for trial, butthe only reason Kramer’s in jail right now is because he was caughtin an out-of-state hotel with an underage boy. Yes, he is entitledto the full protection of the law, but, hopefully, none of us areso addled as to blithely overlook this. Nor the credible reports
that Kramer continued to be involved in the convention on a limited
and discreet basis as recently as 2008. That’s one of many questions
still unanswered by the remaining Dragon*Con owners.

The Dragon*Con mantra that they are helpless to take action againstKramer or cut off the income that has allowed him to make mockeryof the justice system still makes me cry bullshit. Yes, Kramer isa litigious son of a bitch.

If you read the comments to Tuesday’s bloggy thing and the commentselsewhere, you will see many useful suggestions were made by yourstruly and others. All have seemingly been met with the remainingDragon*Con owners wringing their hands and proclaiming their utterimpotency in these matters. Bullshit.

As I wrote on Tuesday...

In all those years, they couldn’t find attorneys with the same oreven greater skills than Kramer’s representation? I can’t buy that.

One of the frequent comments from Dragon*Con supporters is that itis so unfair to penalize Dragon*Con for the alleged crimes of theodious Kramer. There were also comments complaining about my biasagainst Dragon*Con and my use of my personal Dragon*Con experienceas prologue to my condemnation of the convention.

In a response to the most recent Dragon* Con article at The Beat, Sean Knickerbocker wrote:

"I would argue Isabella is highlighting the dysfunctional culturethat Dragon-Con promotes. I would also argue that some of theseresponses promote that dysfunctional culture. Other conventionsdon’t seem to have these problems. A culture that supports acompany because only 1/3 of it is owned by a pedophile is a culturethat supports sexual abuse. I’m sorry, I just don’t see how it canbe anything else."

If I’m biased against Dragon*Con - and I most certainly am - I made no attempt to hide that. The title of Tuesday’s bloggy thing was“Dragon*Con Dies at the End” and the first sentence was:

I’m not remotely a fan of Dragon*Con.

If we were playing poker, you’d call that a tell.

Knickerbocker is correct on all counts. My experiences as well asthose reported by others in comments to my blog and elsewhere areindicative of a dangerous and unhealthy Dragon*Con culture. As Isaid, if 10% of what I’ve been told is true, the event should die.The sooner the better.

I’ll agree that what consenting adults do in the privacy of theirown homes or hotel rooms isn’t a problem. But, again, reading thecomments here and elsewhere, some of what those consenting adultsdo violates the personal space of other Dragon*Con attendees. And,as again revealed by the comments here and elsewhere, not everyoneinvolved in various activities consented to same.

It’s not my intent to write about Dragon*Con in bloggy thing afterbloggy thing. It’s more fun for me to write the other stuff thatI write about it. But I wanted to give those who disagree with methe chance to express their disagreements while also urging them to do their own research on these matters. I've done that.

I do have a few concluding statements.

It is more important than ever for those people who have their ownstories to tell about Kramer or Dragon*Con to come forward and, ifcriminal activity was involved in those stories, to report any suchincidents to the proper authorities. I have and will continue tomaintain confidentiality for those who have shared privately theirstories with me. Their stories are theirs to share as and wheneverthey see fit to do so.

It is more important than ever for those who will no longer attendDragon*Con, be they fans or professionals, to go public with theirstance. Make the remaining Dragon*Con owners painfully aware thatthey have not done right by those who have attended and supported theconvention all these years.

As to the question of why should innocent Dragon*Con fans, guestsand vendors suffer because of the actions of Kramer, the owners andothers, the answer is that life is full of difficult moral choices.Those choices might have consequences ranging from the loss of someincome to the loss of a friend. But one cannot make moral choicesbased on their cost, but on their correctness. I’m confident I’vemade the right choices here.

Dragon*Con will still die at the end. There will be questions asto Kramer’s activities and the other sordid activities reported tohave occurred at the convention...and those questions will be askedby individuals far more imposing than a mere blogger like myself. However...

There’s no good reason a better show can’t arise from Dragon*Con’sashes. There’s obviously an interest and a market for a major showin that part of the country. I would think other event promotersare already studying the options available to them and I wish themwell. Because the fans in that area deserve better.

I’ve said my piece and I stand by it.

Come back tomorrow and you will find me writing about comic booksor cheesy movies or whatever delights me and hopefully entertainsand informs my readers. Getting all those crazy hits was sort ofexciting, but it’s not where my heart lies.

I should have some inspirational closing line here, but all I haveis my usual. I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

﻿The cover of Tom Mix Western #48 [Fawcett; December 1951] makes theclaim its star is “the world’s most famous cowboy.” I made a quicktrip to Wikipedia and found this:

Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix (born Thomas Hezikiah Mix; January 6, 1880– October 12, 1940) was an American film actor and the star of manyearly Western movies. Between 1909 and 1935, Mix appeared in 291films, all but nine of which were silent movies. He was Hollywood'sfirst Western megastar and is noted as having helped define thegenre for all cowboy actors who followed.

I knew of Tom Mix and his stature, but I’m pretty sure I never sawone of his movies. Since they were almost all silent films, that’snot surprising. I’ve read Tom Mix comics stories here and there,likely reprinted by Bill Black’s AC Comics, but they never made animpact on me either.

The Grand Comics Database doesn’t have anything on this issue savefor the cover. But, considering that Tom Mix comics continued tobe published and presumably sell more than a decade after the deathof their star, the title must have had its fair share of readers.

I’ll add this issue to the list of “comic books from the month ofmy birth that I’ll buy if I can afford them.” If I do acquire thisissue, I’ll revisit it in a future bloggy thing.

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The last few months have been extremely busy for me. I completeda number of paying gigs while working on various family, health andpersonal projects. My leisure time consisted of reading old comicbooks and watching movies. I’ll be writing about the movies overthe weekend. Today is for the comic books.

I read several issues of Batman: the Brave and the Bold, based onone of my two favorite animated treatments of the Caped Crusader.All were entertaining, but the one that really floated my Bat-boatwas issue #15 [May, 2010]. Written by Sholly Fisch with pencil artby Robert Pope and inks by Scott McRae, “Minute Mystery” capturedmy heart from its opening sequence: a time-traveling Batman facingthe Mad Mod in London of the 1960s and teamed up with Brother Powerthe Geek and Super-Hip. You might not recognize those names, but,let me tell you, mates, they represent nostalgic heaven for yourstruly and others of my aging generation.

The main story featured Bats and the Flash (a fairly new to the gig
Wally West) teaming to bring the Fiddler to justice. The opening
sequence was wonderful, the rest of the story was very good with
its nice mix of action and characterization. I wish DC would have
continued this title for those of us who find their current Batman
comic books oppressively dark and ugly. Sigh.

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The First X-Men #3-5 [$3.99 each] wrapped up the five-issue seriesby Neal Adams (co-writer and artist), Christos Gage (writer) and,for all but the final issue, Andrew Curtis (inker). These days, Iread each individual Marvel title as if it were taking place in itsown distinct universe. Trying to fit these series into any kind ofcontinuity is impossible and would make my brain explode. Of farmore importance to me - and I think we’ve established it really isall about me - is that it lets me to enjoy some Marvel titles.

The First X-Men is set shortly after the world learned that mutantswalked among men. The government wants to capture all mutants andthat doesn’t sit well with Logan and Victor Creed. They gather asmall number of mutants into a protective league. Clearly, nothingcould go wrong with this fine plan...until it does so in terrifyingfashion. It isn’t a bright and cheerful series, but it boasts top-notch writing, interesting characters and the dramatic/dynamic artof comics master Adams. I recommend it.

A hardcover collection was published in late February. I’m sure itwill be followed by a softcover edition.

ISBN: 978-0785164951

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Garfield #6-10 [KaBoom!; $3.95] are mostly written by my pal MarkEvanier and I expect his stories to be clever and funny. Which, ofcourse, they were. But lest I swell his head with praise, I alsowant to extend kudos to Scott Nickel who wrote stories in issues#8-10. For years, I’ve been a big fan of Nickel’s comic strip Eek!These Garfield tales are quite a departure from the strip, but theyare as entertaining as Evanier’s scripts for the title.

Kudos must also be extended to the Garfield artists: Mike DeCarlo,Gary Barker, Dan Davis, Andy Hirsch, Mark and Stephanie Heike andDavid DeGrand. They delivered bright and bouncy art that made mesmile. DeGrand went for a somewhat different look - I’d call hisstyle “early Garfield” - but that worked well for the Nickel storytitled “The Lasagna Monster.”

Swell comic books for readers of all ages.

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Every so often, DC Comics publishes a trademark-saver, a comic bookwhose clear purpose is to protect the trademark of an old DC titlewhich hasn’t been published in years. These trademark-savers barelittle or no resemblance to the original titles and almost alwaysfail to impress me.

Ghosts [Vertigo one-shot; December 2012] doesn’t break the pattern.Whereas the original DC version of Ghosts featured allegedly truestories of spectral beings, this one is an anthology of tales withghosts. This didn’t bother me. I wasn’t an avid fan of that oldGhosts series either, especially after it turned into just anotherDC mystery title. That said...

The Dave Johnson cover on this one-shot is sweet. It’s striking,well designed and coveys the general theme of the special. I likeit more than anything inside the issue.

Inside the issue are nine stories. The only one mentioned on thecover is a sliver of a continued story featuring Neil Gaiman’s DeadBoy Detectives not written by Neil Gaiman, isn’t particularly goodand to be continued in a Vertigo anthology to be named later. Whata cynical approach to editing!

The best and most interesting tale in the issue is “The Boy and theOld Man” by Joe Kubert. It’s the last story Kubert did before hisdeath, written and loosely penciled and almost worth the one-shot’s$7.99 cover price in and of itself.

Only two other stories did anything for me. Al Ewing’s “The NightAfter I Took the Data Entry Job I Was Visited by My Own Ghost” isa fresh take on the ghost story with lively art by Rufus DayGlo. Ialso liked “Ghost For Hire” by Geoff Johns and Jeff Lemire, whichstruck me as the kind of thing with occasional appearance potentialif DC had an ongoing anthology spooky title.

Look for this one in the bargain bins. If you can get it for oneor two bucks, go for it.

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IDW published three Jurassic Park series in 2010 and 2011. Feelingin a dinosaur mood, I read all three in one day.

Jurassic Park (2010; five issues) by writer Bob Schreck with art by Nate Van Dyke and Jamie Grant is unreadable and downright painfulto behold. It almost kept me from going further.

Jurassic Park: The Devils in the Desert (2011; four issues) by JohnByrne made me glad I continued reading. It’s a solid monster moviedone as comics. Its first issue builds suspense and its subsequentissues deliver action, chills, surprises and great characters. Hemay not have the name brand heroes to play with at IDW, but Byrneis doing some outstanding work there.

Jurassic Park: Dangerous Games (2011; five issues) by Erik Bear andJorge Jimenez goes somewhat far afield of the Jurassic Park mythos.A drug kingpin has bought the island of dinosaurs, uses it for hissanctuary and also uses it to dispose of enemies. If the dinosaursdon’t get them, he sends his own personal hunter after them. Thisseries isn’t in the same league as one by Byrne, but it’s perfectly readable with some neat surprises.

Skip IDW’s first Jurassic Park mini-series, but, by all means, getthe others. The first two are available as trade paperbacks; thethird is available in hardcover.

Jurassic Park Volume 1: Redemption

ISBN: 978-1600108501

Jurassic Park: The Devils in the Desert

ISBN: 978-1600109232

Jurassic Park: Dangerous Games

ISBN: 978-1613770023

That’s all for now. I’ll be back tomorrow with follow-up commentson “Dragon*Con Dies at the End” and, for the weekend, a whole messof movie reviews. Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

I’ll be appearing at Carol and John’s Comic Book Shop on that moststellar of holidays. Their store is located at Kamm’s Plaza, 17462Lorain Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. That’s Saturday, May 4, and I’llbe signing from 3-5 pm. John says the first 100 people who show upfor my signing get a free copy of Essential Marvel Horror Volume 2,which reprints a number of my 1970s stories. It’s a generous offerand I hope my area readers take advantage of it.

The Rawhide Kid - the one created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, thencontinued by Larry Lieber - is my favorite western character. So,inspired by Essential Rawhide Kid Volume 1, which reprinted all theLee/Kirby issues and then some, I’ve been writing about the RawhideKid most every Wednesday. When I ran out of the issues reprintedin the book, I tracked down some owlhoots, brought them in and usedthe reward money to buy more issues of the title. Because that’swhat the Kid would have done.

I was a sophomore in high school when The Rawhide Kid #55 [December1966] hit the newsstands. The Larry Lieber cover shows our younghero battling ten men...and this is in a county where there are nowarrants for his arrest.

“The Plunderers!” (17 pages) is written and drawn by Lieber withinking by Vince Colletta. The Owens family - a farmer, his lovelydaughter and his younger son - get the drop on the Rawhide Kid asthe Kid sleeps. The family figures the reward on the Kid will keepthem from losing their spread. Since Rawhide doesn’t want to harm“an innocent, law-abiding family,” he doesn’t resist.

Cutthroat landowner Gregory Kane and his goons don’t feel the sameway. Kane coverts the Owens spread. He figures his men can roughup the farmer and keep him from collecting the reward while blamingthe assault on “pards of the Rawhide Kid.”

Things don’t work out as anyone planned. Kane’s men beat up Owens, but, as there’s no warrant for Rawhide in the county, the sheriffmust release the Kid. But, before his release, the Kid sees Kane’sgoons lying in wait for Owens. He knows someone’s out to harm thatnice family.

Rawhide reaches the badly beaten Owens, only to be mistaken for theman behind the attack. He fights his way clear of the townspeopleand without drawing his guns:

Meanwhile, Kane no longer cares if Owens gets reward money or not. The town believes Rawhide has it in for the farmer and, if anythinghappens to Owens and his family, it would be blamed on the Kid andhis non-existent pards. Kane and his crew mount up for some night-riding and violence.

Rawhide reaches the Owens farm first. After some initial mistrust, the family realizes he’s on their side and that Kane is most likelybehind the attacks. The Kid, outlaw-trained to hear sounds in thenight, hears the approach of the attackers. In the ensuing fight,Rawhide takes down Kane’s men. However, Kane grabs the daughter asa hostage and makes for his own spread.

Kane plans to ambush Rawhide in his cellar, the cellar where he hasa caged puma. I didn’t see that coming, but Kane explains it allto his captive:

Ah, you’ve noticed my little pet! A deadly and cunning puma that Imyself captured! It amused me to imprison so strong a creature!For, by humbling that mighty beast, I proved my own power!

Yeah, that’s gonna end well.

The Kid knows he’s heading into an ambush, but, even in darkness, his gun skills are far greater than Kane’s. Desperate, Kane opensthe puma’s cage and releases the beast to attack Rawhide. The Kiduses a rafter to swing over the puma’s claws. But then the beastcharges Kane who spends his final thoughts sussing out the folly ofhis ways:

T-the cat is turning toward me! The hatred in his eyes...the thirstfor revenge against the human who captured him...

Rawhide shoots the puma, but too late to save Kane. The story endswith Owens telling him the bank has agreed to extend their note onthe farm and they will get to keep it. The daughter suggests theKid stay on, since the law isn’t after hum in these parts. But theKid knows better:

I know...but I found other enemies here just as dangerous–-the fearand hatred of suspicious townsfolk. So I’m riding’ on! Maybe peaceand quiet are waitin’ for me beyond the next rise...or around thenext bend! Who can tell?

There’s some cool stuff in this story. The ordinary family gettingthe drop on the Rawhide Kid is surprising and yet very believable.The fear and suspicion of the townspeople is played well. Perhapsthe puma is little crazy, but it didn’t keep me from enjoying thisstory. My pal Larry knew how to spin a yarn!

This issue’s non-series story is a reprint from The Rawhide Kid #17[August 1960], which was the issue in which Stan Lee and Jack Kirbyintroduced the Johnny Bart/Clay version of the title hero. Here’swhat I wrote about this story in the very first installment of our“Rawhide Wednesday” series.

“With Gun in Hand!,” the fourth comics story in the issue, is notsigned. Don Heck is definitely the artist. Stan Lee is creditedas the writer by the Grand Comics Database.

This non-series tale has an element that occurs many times in theMarvel westerns. There are variations, but I think of them as the“it takes a real man...” stories. The heroes can be real men whodon’t carry guns, who stay on the right side of the law, who don’tgo looking for fights, who make a personal sacrifice, who are justplain smarter than the badmen they face.

In this instance, two cousins have very different attitudes abouthow to live their lives. One is the fastest gun in the region, theother doesn’t even carry a gun. After being challenged by trigger-happy morons wherever he goes, the armed cousin pretends to lose agunfight and abandons his guns:

No one’s interested in fightin’ an unarmed man, so I reckon we bothgot a heap of livin’ to do from now on!”

The “Marvel Bullpen Bulletins” page follows the comics stories inthis issue. The lead item announces Gene Colan as the new regularartist on Daredevil and teases that this month’s Sub-Mariner stripin Tales to Astonish is by a “new Bullpen luminary.” That artistturns out to be Jerry Grandenetti with inks by Bill Everett. It’llbe a one-issue gig. With the next issue of TTA, Everett commencesa several-issue run as both penciller and inker of the Sub-Marinerfeature. In other items...

New York’s WOR-TV is promoting the Marvel Super-Hero cartoon show. The summer annuals are “probably” sold out by now, but Marvel fansshould look for them and consider themselves lucky if they actuallyfind them. Stan Lee loves Everett’s work on the Doc Strange stripin Strange Tales so much that he wrote the latest episode himself.Lee and Everett would do one more Strange story together and thenMarie Severin would take over the artistic reigns.

The Marvel suits must have been feeling left out because the pagehas a long item mentioning publisher Martin Goodman, merchandisingmaster Chip Goodman and others.

The final “news” item teases a Sub-Mariner/Hulk battle in Tales toAstonish, which the two characters share. It asks readers to tellMarvel who should draw such an epic encounter. The fight finallyhappens in Tales to Astonish #100 [February 1968] with pencil artby Marie Severin and inks by Dan Adkins.

Just under a third of the Bullpen page goes to “The Mighty MarvelChecklist.” Fantastic Four #87 features Doctor Doom and the SilverSurfer. Marvel is “...printing thousands of extra copies for this,possibly the greatest single issue of all!”

In Amazing Spider-Man #44, we learn the origin of the Rhino. When a daddy rhino and a mommy rhino love each other very much...

In Tales of Suspense #84, Captain America goes one-to-one with theSuper-Adaptoid. Marvel assures us that this story is “pure Kirby-esque magic!” Like we didn’t already know that.

The page also lists 26 more Merry Marvel Marching Society members,none of whose names are familiar to me. I keep hoping to spot somefuture pros in these lists.

Peter Caldwell of Minneapolis, Minnesota names Rawhide Kid as “theonly really original western mag put out by a major publishertoday.” John Fisher of St. Anthony, Iowa thinks the Acrobat fromissue #53 is the neatest villain he’s ever seen. He also wants tosee the Scorpion and the Red Raven return. I miss letter columnslike this one.

Come back next Wednesday for more western thrills with the RawhideKid. I’ll be here tomorrow with some other stuff.